At Browick Road Primary and Nursery School, we aim for all of our children to become fluent, confident readers who are passionate about reading. Children who read, or are read to regularly, have the opportunity to open the doors to so many different worlds. More importantly, reading will give your child the tools to become independent lifelong learners.
We can achieve this together through:
- Read Write Inc. - a programme to help your child read at school.
- Encouraging children to develop a love of books by reading to them daily at home and at school.
- Giving children access to a wide range of books at school and at home.
Read Write Inc. Home Video Links
What is Read Write Inc.?
Read Write Inc. (RWI) is a phonics complete literacy programme which aims to help all children learn to read fluently and at speed so they can focus on developing their skills in comprehension, vocabulary and spelling.
Designed by Ruth Miskin, the programme is particularly for children aged 4-7. However, at Browick Road, we begin the programme part-way through Nursery and will continue teaching RWI to children beyond the age of 7 if they still need support in their reading. We are using the phonics and reading parts of the programme, which includes writing words and spelling, and we are continuing to use Talk for Writing for our writing lessons.
How will RWI be taught?
All children are assessed every half-term so that the children can work in small groups with others at the same level.
Nursery
When appropriate, children will be introduced to the initial sounds in short sessions. Towards the end of the academic year, the children will begin to blend sounds together to read words, if ready.
Reception
In Reception, all children will learn how to ‘read’ the sounds in words and how those sounds can be written down. The children are taught in small groups from the start of the year, to ensure that the teaching of phonics has a large impact on their early learning.
Reading
The children:
- learn 44 sounds and the corresponding letters/letter groups using simple picture prompts – see below
- learn to read words using 'Fred' talk and sound blending
- read from a range of storybooks and non-fiction books matched to their phonic knowledge
- work well with partners
- develop comprehension skills in stories by answering 'Find It' and 'Prove It' discussion questions.
Writing
The children:
- learn to write and form the letters/letter groups which represent the 44 sounds with the help of fun phrases
- learn to write words by using 'Fred Talk' and 'Fred Fingers'.
Talking
The children work in pairs so that they:
- practise every activity with their partner
- take turns in talking and reading to each other
- develop ambitious vocabulary.
Year 1 and Above
Children follow the same format as Reception but will work on complex sounds and read books appropriate to their reading level. Daily sessions of RWI phonics last for forty minutes. Once children become fluent and speedy readers, they will move on to whole class reading lessons to further develop their comprehension.
Five key principles underpin the teaching in all Read Write Inc. sessions:
Purpose – know the purpose of every activity and share it with the children.
Participation – ensure every child participates throughout the lesson. Partnership work is fundamental to learning.
Praise – ensure children are praised for effort and learning, not ability.
Pace – teach at an effective pace and devote every moment to teaching and learning.
Passion – be passionate about teaching so children can be engaged emotionally.
Fred Talk
We use pure sounds (‘m’ not’ muh’,’s’ not ‘suh’ etc.) so that your child will be able to blend the sounds into words more easily.
At school, we use a puppet called Fred, who is an expert at sounding out words! This is called ‘Fred Talk’, e.g. m-o-p, c-a-t, m-a-n, sh-o-p, b-l-a-ck.
The following video is an example of blending sounds with Fred: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzfpod5w_Q
Sounds
The children are taught the sounds in 3 sets. Children will be taught sounds in the order shown below, together with rhymes to help them form the letters correctly and instantly recognise sounds ready for blending. When children are very confident with all of one set, they will move on to learning the next one.
This film can help you with your pronunciation so that you can work with, and help, your child at home: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkXcabDUg7Q
Please do not use letter names at this early stage.
Nonsense words (alien words)
As well as learning to read and blend real words, children will have plenty of opportunities to apply their sound recognition skills when reading ‘nonsense words’. These words will also feature heavily in the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check in the summer term.
Starting to read
When children can read single words successfully, they will be introduced to ‘Ditties’. Children use Fred Talk to read the words and they will bring them home once they have read and discussed them in class.
Within all of the books, children will have red and green words to learn to help them to become speedy readers. Red words are words that are not easily decodable and are challenge words to extend children’s vocabulary. Green words are linked to the sounds they have been learning and are easily decodable. Dots and dashes represent the sound each letter makes.
During the RWI sessions, children will read the book at least three times and, at each new reading, they will have plenty of opportunities to practise using their developing comprehension skills. This repeated reading also allows children to develop fluency and characterisation.
What is the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check?
The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check is a short, light-touch assessment to confirm whether individual pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an appropriate standard and takes place during the summer term.
It will identify the children who need extra help, so they are given support to improve their reading skills. They will then be able to retake the check the following year so that the school can support pupils until they are able to decode.
Click here for a copy of our ‘Reading at Home’ leaflet.
Reading-at-Home-leaflet
Phonics Workshop:
Parents' Meeting
